Every year I have a contest with the air conditioner. I don’t call it a contest but that’s really what it is. Eventually I have to grudgingly concede victory to the old A/C on the day I finally turn it on. I hold off as long as possible. Longer, actually. But that is so I can get extra points and later be able to say; “Do you know I never turned the air on until JULY such and such?” And I’m so proud that I held out so long.

I remember one year when I mentally transferred blame to my dog for having to surrender fairly early on. I could have held out longer but my 100 pound White German Shepherd was panting miserably and so, well, it was really him who lost me the contest that year.

Once the air has been turned on a barrier has been crossed – I’m whipped. No more leaving the front door to the enclosed porch propped open. No more breezes blowing my papers about from the window by the computer where I work. No more cooling evening air and street noise into my bedroom. No more sudden awakenings in the middle of the night to rush about closing windows because of a storm.

Today was my day. Nowhere near July and I’ve already caved in. It’s timing really. Timing is everything. I’ve gone long enough to be respectable but not so long as to appear stubborn. Even the scripture agrees with me. You know what it says; “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”(Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Today it is time to turn the air on. Sigh.